Railway-car door



dJJJvd U m A W N 2 Sheets-Sheet 1' T. ELLIOTT RAILWAY CAR DOOR iled Oct.27, 1924 Nov. 30, 1926.

ilinnlliizn 2 QWQQA ATTORNEY:

Nov. 30 I926.

. T. ELLIOTT RAILWAY CAR noon iled Oct. 27, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 6mvpuroa ATTORNEYfi Patented Nov. 32, 1926.

Uh'lTED STATES Mtge PATENT OFFIQE.

THOMAS ELLIOTT, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE CINCINNATI CARCOTE- PANY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

RAILWAY-CAR DOOR.

Application filed. October 27, 1924. Serial No. 746,032.

This invention relates to improvements in door-operating mechanism forrailway car doors.

The object is to provide a hand ope able mechanism for opening andclosing sliding doors quickly and with small manual effort and at thesame time to prevent the doors from striking their jambs to their injuryand to the annoyance of passengers.

This object is carriedinto practical eiiect by means, essentially, of aswinging lever combined with a sliding door and a clashpot adapted totravel with the door and having its piston connected with such lever,

whereby when the lever is in one position the door will stand across thedoorway, and when the lever is thrown from that position to one beyondits fulcrum or pivot, the door will recede into a pocket in the bot y ofthe car, the dash-pot functioning to check the momentum of the door asit approaches its jamb or final .position both in the closing and theopening movements of the door.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a sliding door combined with my saidmechanism and of a portion of a railway car in which the door ismounted.

36 Figure 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view on the line 22 ofFigure 1 looking in the direction of the arrows, the door being shownwithin the pocket through which the section is taken.

Figure 3 is an enlarged detail view of the dash-pot.

My mechanism is designed to be mounted in a railway car, particularly ofthe city or interurban types, of such construction that the car willhave a doorway or opening which leads to the steps, whereby thepassengers may enter and leave the car; and which will also have apocket or compartment built within the car walls and in line with thedoorway, so that a sliding door may be mounted to travel from a positionin the doorway, when the door may be said to be closed, to a positionwithin the pocket or compartment, when it may be said to be open. Somuch of such a car as is necessary for present purposes'is illustratedin the accompanying drawings.

Referring specifically to the illustrations, the numeral 1 designatesthe floor of a part at of the car body, a vamped floor; the numeral 2,the platform floor; the numeral 3, a door way, and the numeral at apocket or compartment. A track 5 is mounted across the upper part of thedoorway and within the up per portion of the pocket.

It will be seen, more particularly from Figure 2, that between the outerwall or side plate 7 and the outer sashes 7 and 7 of the car body, andthe inner wall or lining 7 and inner sashes 7 and 7*, a pocket 4 isformed.

The track 5 is preferably secured to the channel beam 8 which formsplate in the car structure. The track is composed specifically of a woodbeam 9 secured in a certain channel and a track proper indicated at 10,being a metal strip with its lower edge upturned to receive the groovesof the door rollers 11.

To these rollers is hung the door 12 by means of journal bolts 13. Thedoor is preferably made in sections 13 13 and 13 and in cases where thedoor is to travel in a curved path these sections are hinged together asindicated at 1 the more readily to conform to such a path. But thatfeature forms no part of the present invention.

Secured to what may be called the inner edge of the door is a bracket 15held to the door by bolts 16. The upper end of a guide rod 17 extendsinto this bracket and is held by a nut 18. This guide rod extends thencedownward centrally through the cylinder 19 of the dash pot where it issecuret, as seen in Figure 3, by a nut 20 which clamps the rod andcylinder together against a shoulder 21 on the rod. The cylinder has aflange 22 which is also secured to the edge of the door by means of abolt 23.

The cylinder'l9 is provided with a boss 24 having an air inlet passage25 controlled by a ball check valve 26 adapted to play between a stop 27in the inlet and a cap 28 which retains the ball. On the up stroke ofthe piston to be presently referred to, air is drawn into the cylinderthrough this inlet port 25, the ball valve permitting the entrance ofthe air by settling back against the stop pin 27. The boss is furtherprovided with an air'exhaust port 29 controlled by a screw 30 so as toadjust the escape of the air according as the screw is positioned moreor less across the exhaust port.

In this way a sufiicient volume of air is drawn into the cylinder on theup stroke of Bil the r sn 1 w l eeylieds i t a part belowthe piston,while on the down stroke the exit of this quantity of air is delayed orvretardedob y the smaller area of the exhaustthan of theinletiport, sothat the air is compressedhnore or less and always suiiiciently to checkthe descent of the piston as it approaches the end of its down stroke.The air escapes fast enough tope'rmit the descent t the piston but yetslow enough to hold back a portion of the to form, when compressed, acushion which checks the novement oi the piston before it canstrike anymetallic parts at or near the bottom of the cylinder, and before thedoor can reach its janib, either when being swung across the doorway orback into the pocket. Then as the door and piston complete theirmovement slowly under the checlring influence ot' the compressed air,the air gradually escapes sufficiently to let the piston inake'its'fullstroke and the door its full movement to softly come against its amb.

Referring now to the piston which forms a part of the dash-pot, thenumeral 81 designates the rod and 32 the piston head having conventionalpacking rings 83. The head and rod are hollow so as to lit snugly overthe guide rod 1'7 on which the piston travels as well as within thecylinder. The upper end of the piston rod is fashioned with a fiat face3% having holes by which may be attached to the piston rod an arm 36which becomes a rigid projection on the piston. Bolts 37 are, used tosecure the arm to the piston rod.

A lever designated at 88 is connected as by bolt 39 to the arm 36 and atthe other end is mounted on a fulcrum or pivot pin l0 carried by astan'dardl on a base 42 sup,- p'orted conveniently within the pocket 4:.

A hand cord or cable this secured to the lever 38 at the point andpasses thence over a guide pulley 4:5 mountedin the car structure at apoint above the pocket or in the upper part thereof, as seen in Figure2; This cable extends to any convenient point within the car formanipulation by theniotornian or CQnductor.

It will now be seen that a stit'tpull on the cable will raise the leverfrom tlieful-jl line position shown in Figure 1 to the dotted positionindicated at that in this movementthe' lever carries with it'the arm andtherefore the dash-pot with the guide rod 12 and the doorto which it andthe cylinder are attached, As the lever swingsin the first'l V p thepuller the cable and the door-and its connected parts follow it withconsiderable memento-1n. 7 the lever into the ht ot its n1ovement, i-tis under- -nectedwe s h t f t o eme t th abl is slaekened and themomentum of the parts carry them on. But in the meantime, due to theupward movement of the piston in the.

cylinder, a quantity of air has entered through the inlet port 25.reaches the end 01 the first half of its movement the piston reaches thelimit or its up stroke. hen the lever starts into the second hall of itsmovement the piston begins to make its down stroke. In doing so it actson the air and begins to compress so much of it does not escape throughthe outlet port 29. As the lever approaches the end or the second haltof its travel and the door approaches its janib, the air being nowconsiderably compressed forms a cushion which checks the-down stroke ofthe piston and slows it down gradually until its complete stroke is madeso that the ClOOT-"lll-IGWlSB slows down and softly comes in contactwith its iainb, whetherwhile in the pocket or while crossing and closingthe doorway.

A particular feature of my invention is that or" thus softening thecontact otthe door with those objects which define the limit of itsmovement. Or on other words, this feature is that of checking the pistonand door by the action of the air in resisting the piston to reduce themomentum of the parts a they approach the end of the opening nd closingmovements oi the door.

Having thus fully described my invention whatl claim as new and desireto secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

l. The combination with a railway car having a doorway and doorpoclretand provided with a track extending across the doorway and into thepockenof a door adapted to travel on said track, a cylinder secured tothe door, a guide rod extendingthrough the cylinder and secured theretoat one end and to'the-door at the other end, a piston titted,

exteriorly to the cylinder and havinga bore extending therethroughwithin which fits said rod, the cylinder having air inlet andoutletopemngs, an arm secured to the piston,

As the lever a lever pivoted within'the pocket and'connected' atone endwith saidarm, andhanddevices-to operate said levers.

2. In a d-eviceoii the character described,

the combination witha door, of aguiderod secured thereto, acylindersurrounding' and secured tosa d rod and having air inlet andoutletports ot ditl erent diameters. piston on said d, an

operable in'thecylinder-an lei-'e-r conarmsecured to the pist osaid'arm. In testimony whereof; 1' aiixni-y signature.

